he addressed the petraeus scandal for the first time at a white house news conference. the president also went out of his way to praise petraeus and said this country is safer because of the work that he has done. >> i have no evidence at this point from what i've seen that classified information was disclosed that in any way would have had negative impact on our national security. >> democrats and republicans must work together on the impending fiscal cliff. that did not stop him from criticizing the right wing for vowing to block an attempt to -- that did not stop him from criticizing some republicans attempt to stop him from making u.n. ambassador susan rice the next secretary of state. in the meantime, rice attended a u.n. security council meeting tonight on the recent violence in the gaza strip. she said president obama called benjamin netanyahu and reiterated his support for israel's right to defend itself. but she said the united states is urging israel to make efforts to avoid civilian casualties. it happened after an israeli air strike killed an hamas leader zu